Reconciliation of inner opposites.

Discrimination

Depth perception - parallax.

Passive inspiration

Scintillating intelligence

Breezes, Zephyrs, fog, clouds

LITHA - Litha is at the end of Gemini, at the Cancer cusp, Key 7

• The sun represents enlightenment; Raphael, the angel of air, and Mercury, bestows superconsciousness, partly concealed by clouds of worldly ignorance.

• Adam and Eve show life force differentiated into opposites, and unspoiled, innocent love. By Eve is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of Eden. Five fruits represent the five senses.

• The woman looks at the angel, and the man looks out at the world (or at the woman). Nesting vs. Questing - the female / male archetypes - here they intermingle happily.

• Her upward look suggests spiritual aspiration, re-uniting with source, and Vidya-Maya; his look out into the world shows separating desire, individuation, and Avidya-Maya.

• The serpent tempts and destroys innocence; bringing worldy knowledge. Key 8 defines the snake, and Kundalini.

• The tree by Adam bears 12 trefoil florets, signifying the 12 Zodiacal signs, 3 decans each. The mountain in the background also shows in Key 8, Strength. It is Sinai, Olympus, Fujiyama, Manitou, Denali - abodes of the Gods. It suggests climbing, aspiration, and attainment. Higher ground beckons. Here, it also represents pregnancy, or "charged with seed."

  "The central mountain is everywhere"
  Chief Black Elk

• This is the time for planting. Seed is sown thick; likewise ideas gush forth from this path, not all expected to root. Yod, of Key 9, is the single seed, Key 6 is a bunch of seed. Zain is penis, so the implication is obvious. The Gemini glyph resembles the female "gates," producing a dual symbolism for this androgynous sign of duality.

• These 'wild oats' are often sown indiscriminately, which doesn't always sit well with others. Thus arises Gemini's reputation for being shallow, fickle, or coldhearted. But this is the realm of urgent activity, with scarce time for billowy dalliance, or committed determination.

• When active in the chart, Gemini is the clever trickster energy. When happy, we get Gilbert and Sullivan, or Jim Carrey. When Mercury is retrograde, miscommunications happen; luggage gets lost, phone numbers get written down wrong, keys are misplaced, and people make wrong turns.

• Gemini, Key 6, is somewhat androgynous - and Artemesia, the botanical name of wormwood, was Artemis, Divine personification of the moon. A chaste, cool Goddess of the hunt, her breast is pinched by her bowstring, and goes unused. This girl stays single, and runs her own life.

• Artemis is Goddess of birth; the Gemini symbol resembles the gates of the womb. Women who died in childbirth were said to have been shot by Artemis' arrows.

• Sense of smell is attributed to this key. Fragrance and sense of smell has been found to affect memory by association. The scent detecting neurons are the last part of the brain to cease activity after death. Odor and fragrance is a big part of sex, and mating, and hence, ritual.

• The dual nature of Key 6, and its attribution of discrimination, can be compared to stereo vision or hearing, which imparts our catlike object-locating abilities. This is called parallax, which can be demonstrated by shutting one eye, and then the other, and seeing objects jump right and left. These "twin" objects are a function of the distance between the eyes.

• Gemini rules the lungs, another set of twins. The nervous system, fed by breath, is also in the domain of Key 6, and the two are inextricably intertwined. The brain uses more oxygen than any other organ.

• This is "mind as butterfly," or "chattering monkey," unable to calm its nervous activity. Yoga calls this "tossing of the mind" "Vikshepa." Pranayama, or Yogic breathing, is Patanjali's suggested remedy for vikshepa.

• Mercury, Virgo or Gemini, when active in the chart, can result in the kind of person who likes to keep things on a trivial level, who loves to chat, but hates serious discussion. This is the tendency to perpetuate the superficial, avoidance of reflection or introspection, and constant seeking of diversion. Compulsive talkers have Mercury issues, as do people who are scatterbrained. Gossip is a Mercurian fault, and so is interior chatter. Though inner dialog can be a powerful tool for dreamwork, emotional healing, or relationship mending, the inner mind run amok with Mercury is unproductive at best, destructive at worst.

• Mental health and spiritual development are partly processes of harmonizing seeming opposites of internal personality. Key 6 shows that blending, or integration. The internal "characters" that comprise our inner chatter can communicate, and dance.

  

• The angel Raphael's brow is bound with autumnal oak leaves. This refers to the autumn sign, Key 14, Sagittarius, the opposite of Gemini. Gemini brings summer, Sagittarius brings winter. Gemini sees Sagittarius as ponderous, obsessed with the obvious, Sagittarius sees Gemini as a kitten sees a moth, or a flicking piece of thread. Sagittarius is the "higher octave" of Gemini, and the two freely exchange both troublesome and beneficent characteristics.

• Oak leaves, and trees, have myriad mythic associations. Trees were worshiped by Teutonic tribes; Druidic temples were in clearings in ancient groves of oak trees. Wood is fuel for fire, and fire is perhaps our first "magical" tool.

• The longevity of trees is mystifying to humans. An oak tree, for example, can live to be 400 years old. This means that a baby can play by the stump of an already old tree, grow to old age, and have great, great grandchildren that can play by the same tree.

  

• Trees covered vast tracts of the earth at one time.

  "For at the dawn of history Europe was covered with immense primeval forests, in which the scattered clearings must have appeared like islets in an ocean of green...Germans whom Caesar questioned had travelled for two months through it without reaching the end... In the Forum, (in Rome) the busy center of Roman life, the sacred fig-tree of Romulus was worshipped down to the days of the empire, and the withering of its trunk was enough to spread consternation through the city. Again, on the slope of the Palatine Hill grew a cornel-tree which was esteemed one of the most sacred objects in Rome.... In the North West Provinces of India, a marriage ceremony is performed in honour of a newly-planted orchard.

  First, then, trees or tree-spirits are believed to give rain and sunshine. When the missionary Jerome of Prague was persuading the heathen Lithuanians to fell their sacred groves, a multitude of women besought the Prince of Lithuania to stop him, saying that with the woods he was destroying the house of God from which they had been wont to get rain and sunshine... In Cambodia each village or province has its sacred tree, the abode of a spirit.

  from The Golden Bough

• According to Plutarch, the water nymph Egeria, who lived in every oak grove, married King Numa, king of the woods. Frazer considered this "a reminiscence of a sacred marriage which the old Roman kings regularly contracted with a goddess of vegetation and water for the purpose of enabling him to discharge his divine or magical functions," and pointed out "how very often in early society the king is held responsible for the fall of rain and the fruitfulness of the earth." In Roman times oak boughs were carried at weddings to ensure a fruitful marriage.

• Later on, the oak became the sacred tree of the Romans, and Jupiter was reputedly sheltered by an oak at his birth. Acorns were widely held to have been the first of man's foods and legend tells how Ceres - the Roman goddess of agriculture - replaced them with corn; to recognize people's debt to the acorn, oak was worn at festivals in honour of Ceres and by reapers as they harvested. Romans who had saved the life of a fellow citizen were granted an oak leaf crown, which gave them many privileges.

• "Acorn" is the the Latin "glans-" the head of the penis, another symbol of vigor, growth, and life. Glans also means "bullet" in Latin.

• Pliny describes how sacred the oak was to the Gauls and their Druid priests. In Ireland the oak was one of the Seven Noble Trees, which could not be destroyed without payment of a fine.

• In Scandinavia the oak was sacred to Thor, God of thunder, also called Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, Gemini's polar opposite.

• The Argonauts' ship Argo was made of oak wood from the temple of Zeus at Dodona, where the priestess who lived under the eldest oak tree found answers to questions in the rustling leaves. One of the timbers in the boat could speak, and gave advice to the voyagers.

• Oak leaves and acorns are associated with "Ripe old age."

• The Mysteries of Eleusis were held annually in honor of Demeter and Persephone in the town of Eleusis, in Attica, Greece. Their nature was a closely guarded secret, any breach of which was punishable by death. Participants wore oak wreaths at the temple of Demeter, and paid homage to Demeter (or Ceres) and Persephone (or Proserpine).

  Demeter's daughter, Persephone, was abducted by Pluto, Saturn's son. Demeter appeals to Jupiter to intervene; he decrees that Persephone may return from the underworld only if she has eaten nothing during her time in Hades. Persephone, though, wandering in the well tended gardens, had taken a pomegranate and put seven seeds in her mouth, so Jove divides the year, saying Persephone will stay with her mother in the upper world half the year, creating summers, and with her husband in the underworld half the year, creating winters.

• The ritual took three forms, the "things spoken" legomena, "things performed" dromena, and "things revealed" deiknymena. The hiera, or epopteia are the sacred objects that when revealed at the height of the ritual brought revelation and transcendant vision. These objects were under protection of the Hierophant.

  "The Athenians when initiating anyone into the Eleusinian Mysteries show to the initiates a sacred green ear of corn reaped in silence. This ear of corn is also for the Athenians the great and perfect spark of light from the Unportrayable One; just as the hierophant himself, not indeed castrated like Attis, but rendered a eunuch by hemlock, and cut off from all fleshy generation, celebrating by night at Eleusis the great and ineffable mysteries beside a huge fire, cries aloud and makes proclamation, saying: "August Brimo has brought forth a holy son, Bromios," that is, the strong has given birth to the strong.

  Hippolytus, Philosophumena (trans. F. Legge)

• "Elysium" is the Greek abode of the blessed after death. The "Elysian Fields" are synonymous with the hallucinogenic realms brought by psychedelics. Ecstatic states brought on by dance, ritual, and ingested substances permeate folk society throughout history. The attribution of wormwood to Key 6 reflects this, as wormwood is used to make Absinthe, a mildly psychedelic liqueur.

from Shiller's "Ode to Joy:"

Freude, Sch�ner G�tterfunken,         Joy, fair spark of the gods,
Tochter aus Elysium,                    Daughter of Elysium,
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,             Drunk with fiery rapture,
                                        Goddess,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!             We approach thy shrine!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,             Thy magic reunites those
Was die Mode streng geteilt;            Whom stern custom has parted;
Alle Menschen werden Br�der,           All men will become brothers
Wo dein sanfter Fl�gel weilt.          Under thy gentle wing.

Friedrich von Schiller, 1785

GEMINI

May 21st to June 21st.

Ruled by Mercury.

I Think.

Enquirer or dabbler.

Mutable Air. Thinking, communication, relationships, intellect, intuition, all concerns of air, diversify in Gemini, into myriad ideas, plans, conversations, and sketches. Gemini is the spring breezes, unpredictable weather, the occasional late freeze. Gemini influences in the chart (Third house, or planets in Gemini) create an emphasis on mental stimulus. This can manifest as scintillating, humorous, inventive, or clever transmission of knowledge. When focused, the Gemini mind is agile, articulate, encyclopedic, and capable of dazzling genius.

Gemini, when active in the chart, is lively, optimistic, free-spirited, multi-faceted, forever young, open to new ideas, flirtatious, a quick study, charming, polite, cheerful, discriminating, conversant on any subject, versatile, scientific, good with the hands, creative, witty, clever, sociable, fluent language ability, avoiding of physical confrontation, tactical, inventive, resourceful, receptive, friendly, logical, analytical, celebrating of life, inventive, innovative, philosophical, and articulate.

Unfavorable Gemini can be two-faced, manipulative, unfocused, flaky, undependable, sarcastic, shallow, petty, unable to finish things, shifty, too many irons in the fire, a copycat, too mental, unable to take a stand, picky, devious, skeptical, vain, confused, talks too much, restless, superficial, argumentative, vacillating, conflicted, gullible, doesn't plan for the future, a moocher, sharp tongue, cynical, bitter, impatient, loses interest easily, nonchalant, and glib.

Domains of Gemini are data management, languages, speculation, community, the arts, music, culture. Gemini is the mind itself; its processes, patterns, and constraints.

Grounding influences elsewhere in the chart are very useful for Gemini, though may appear as burdens at first. Gemini needs channeling, and focus.

Gemini, ruled by mental Mercury, is a flexible, quicksilver spark of thought, gone as soon as you see it. Mercury shares rulership with Virgo and Gemini, and when not held down by earth or unrooted in the air, Virgo/Gemini can shine.

Lessons for Gemini include controlling the mind, being sincere, honest, consistent, not being self-obsessed, taking a broader view of things.

Gemini is symbolized by a set of twins; this metaphor shows communication. Castor and Pollux, one in heaven, and one on Earth, describe the connection between mundane and spiritual thought. Split-personality is a common Gemini descriptor; the Chinese call Gemini the Monkey - for it's restless mind.

Gemini rules the lungs and nervous system.

For Gemini, the Shadow takes the form of Other's being plodding, obtuse, or witless. Beneath your friendliness and affability, you feel there is a dimension to your intelligence beyond anyone's reach, so you can be aloof, and contemptuous. Work with your shadow, and the people you project it onto, by learning patience, and that there is always more for you to learn. The more you deny your Shadow, the more it will manifest itself and attract what you will interpret as disruption or pain.

The Third house has the character of Gemini: planets in this house are concerned with Communication; thinking, ability to relate to the environment, dexterity, early education, immediate family, memory, perception, speech, basic articulation skills.

The air triplicity is Gemini (mutable) followed by Libra (cardinal) , and then Aquarius (fixed).

In the natural order of the signs, Gemini is air, preceded by Taurus (earth), and followed by Cancer (water).

The opposite axis, or antidote to Gemini, is Sagittarius.